


Don't speak of the future (there never was one for us)

by drelfina



Series: Mutual Pining [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Death, Feels for all, Founders Era, Gen, Less unrequited feelings and more they were never going to be anything, M/M, Major character death - Freeform, Tobirama is dying in the rain AGAIN., Tragedy, hallucination
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:53:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22132102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drelfina/pseuds/drelfina
Summary: It's raining, and Tobirama is dying.His dying senses conjure Uchiha Madara for him, and it isbitter.
Relationships: Uchiha Madara & Senju Tobirama, Uchiha Madara/Senju Tobirama (unrequited)
Series: Mutual Pining [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1598689
Comments: 65
Kudos: 260





	Don't speak of the future (there never was one for us)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [evocates](https://archiveofourown.org/users/evocates/gifts).



It was raining. 

Of course it was raining. 

It was raining and his breathing was thick, wet with it, and his fingers were going cold. Shock, he thought, and blood loss. He didn't feel pain anymore, not since the last time he had shunted it aside and charged forward. 

Where was his sword? He had lost track of it, and when he curled his fingers, he couldn't feel anything. 

It was the end. 

And he closed his eyes. 

Between that breath and the next, there was a chakra signature right _there_. Spikey, warm, and he took a deep breath, lukewarm salt in his mouth. 

"Kagami," he said, opening his eyes. "I told you to -" 

The dark hair wavered in his vision; never the best at times, and it didn't look like Kagami. 

"Madara," he said, soft words leaving like a breath. 

"So you're dying, murderer." 

He could feel his mouth twitch up. 

"Yes," he said. "I am." 

It wasn't Kagami after all, there was nothing, and no one, but even then, right now, alone in the rain, where Kinkaku and Ginkaku had left him to choke in his blood, knowing that he was no longer any fun, no longer a _toy_ , he was dying. 

"All of my senses should be going," he said to the apparition his senses had decided to gift him with one last time. They should be going, and his vision was already starting to blur worse, darken around the edges. 

This time there would be no saving him, not even Anija. Because Anija was gone. 

"Why couldn't it be Anija?" he asked. 

The apparition crouched down, and this close Tobirama imagined he could feel the heat of him. It was exactly like he'd ever thought it would be, unbanked, passionate, a soothing roar against his senses. 

Of all the reasons he had turned away from Uchiha Madara, it had not been because he hated the man. 

"Did you want to see Hashirama, one last time, murderer?" A hand, leather, catching against his skin, and it was amazing what the mind could decide to throw up in one's dying moments. Warm and broad palm, and those fingers reached up against his hairline. Intimate, and it made him _laugh_ , wet and choking. "Why do you think you deserve it?" 

"I've never deserved it," Tobirama murmured, turning his head into the touch. 

"You never deserved him," Madara agreed, and Tobirama's smile felt cracked, bloody and painful. "He was too good for you." 

Too good, always too good, too much of a peace-maker, and _idealist_. "Just wanted to apologise. For -" 

"For _Izuna_." Madara's hand tightened against his cheek, fingers tightening in the bloodied line of his hair and Tobirama didn't stop laughing. 

Pain was just the last firing of nerves, useless information when he was already going numb from his extremities, neurons that didn't know he was already dead. 

Rain pattered down, against his eyes, and for a moment he almost shut them. But then if he did, he'd stop seeing Madara - the last hints of his sight. 

"If only," Tobirama murmured. "If only I hadn't. But it is what it is." 

And you have never forgiven me. 

"It is what it _is_ ," Madara agreed, low and dark, and he was leaning in down, and Tobirama could not tell if it was his vision going or if it was Madara's hair, a thick darkness caressing down his face. "You shouldn't have _lived_." 

"If it would have bought Anija's peace," Tobirama agreed. 

There was never a chance, he knew, not for what he wanted. 

But then, he was what he was - there was never getting what he _wanted_ , not when there had been a war, not when there had been the Village, and not when there had been his students to defend. 

But here and now, there was just him alone, him, Senju Tobirama, stripped of armour and slowly leaking life in the rain into the mud, and he could finally be honest. 

"I'm sorry," he said, and the energy was sapping away, his vision finally gone. He couldn't quite feel, but the last input from his sensing was Madara's chakra, still, curling warm and licking against him like the warmth of a hearth. "If only…" 

He thought he could reach up, and touch - he thought he felt the coarse texture under his palm, his fingers, the curls. "It's so soft," he breathed. 

And then he felt nothing at all.

* * *

The man's hand slipped down from his hair, finally going limp, and Madara stared at him. 

His hated enemy, the Senju's _Demon_ , was finally gone. Finally dead, and Izuna could rest in peace. 

Even if it wasn't Madara who had killed him…. 

Madara thumbed at the edge of those eyes - he'd memorized the shape of them, a long time ago, and he'd never thought to see the bright vivid red of them dimmed with death. 

For a moment it looked almost those eyes were blood red, like Izuna's mangekyou, crying blood like when Izuna had… had… 

But no, he realised, that was him. It was blood dripping down his cheeks and chin, was dripping down, on those pale cheeks, diluted with rain, lending Tobirama some colour like a blush, until the rain washed it away. 

He was dead, and Madara…. Madara could. 

Start his plan. 

He could. 

He didn't know how long he knelt there, in the mud, until he realised that the sun was burning on his neck, and the blood that still lingered had dried flakey and brown on Tobirama's hairline, and when he pulled his hand back, a dried line of blood had curved delicate and loving against the fine line of his cheekbone, like the trail of a lover's kiss. 

"Ah," Madara said, and made himself stand up. 

He had to go now, and he wasn't even sure why his eyes stung still. 

It must be the sun. 

END

**Author's Note:**

> Title was inspired by 你是我胸口永遠的痛, (you the eternal pain in my chest.) specifically this stanza
> 
> 不想從前 不談未來 我為誰等待  
> 不要你懂 不怕人說 讓愛 隨風沈默  
>  _Don't think of the past, don't talk of the future, who could I be waiting for?  
>  I don't need you to understand, and I'm not afraid of what others say, let love follow the wind in silence. _ (shitty translation by me)
> 
> Further Inspiration from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's Li MuBai and Yu ShuLien. I didn't like the movie all that much, but Michelle Yeoh's Yu ShuLien really SOLD IT TO ME. that love they had that no one would speak of EVER. 
> 
> canon!Tobirama and canon!Madara perhaps, once upon a time, could have been The One. 
> 
> But there was never any chance of it was there? Not really. 
> 
> _Romeo and Juliet_ was a _tragedy_ , not a romance.
> 
> * * *
> 
> ~~And now i have to go and write more Shisui dammit, I am NOT a founders era writeeeerrrrr~~


End file.
